Monday, January 6, 2014

Dresner’s Point: Why do Some BI Sprouts Lead to Failure?

Over the years of conducting our Wisdom of Crowds®
Business Intelligence Market Study on various aspects of BI the
percentage of respondents that report success with their BI initiatives
increases each time. Yet there are still some that report failures.

Success begets even more success, of course. What enables an outcome
of “mission accomplished” and what causes failures? This has been a
topic of debates several times in our Friday #BIWisdom tweetchats.
Our market studies consistently reveal that key contributors to
success are management commitment, organizational stability, focused
implementation and requisite skills. So it follows that the opposite
characteristics would lead to failure: lack of management commitment,
unstable organization and lack of skills.

But my #BIWisdom tweetchat participants have expanded that picture
with their real-world experiences as users, vendors and consultants. In
our debates, they swept past the key characteristics and honed in on a
central issue — How do organizations decide that a BI implementation
failed?

Is the deciding factor that the company does poorly, or that the
users are dissatisfied, or is it a combination of both factors? And what
constitutes a “user” in this aspect; is it only users with decision
authority? Is the deciding factor among end users the fact that vendors
say the technology answers problems all on its own and thus there is not
enough emphasis on process, training, briefings, change management? Is
it the lack of a long-term vision and commitment, which then causes the
BI solution to go stale and subsequently be perceived as a failure?

Failure is a relevant term; in some organizations the IT department
may say the BI initiative is a success but end users say it’s a failure
because they can’t use the tool.

A participant tweeted that evaluating whether or not a BI
implementation fails should be like a doctor’s evaluation, checking for
various symptoms to determine whether the implementation is “healthy.”
From their own experiences, the #BIWisdom participants came up with a
list of “symptoms” criteria for evaluating success or failure.

Someone tweeted that user adoption is the only symptom that counts.
Someone else stated that it isn’t the only criterion, but it’s the most
important one. Another participant disagreed, saying that it’s important
that the users adopt a tool that delivers correct data and information.

Another tweeted that early adoption is critical. And someone else
countered that an influential stakeholder’s adoption is the most
critical factor, adding that “one negative C-level opinion is all it
takes for failure.” One person stated that success requires “adoption
from the C-suite to the shop floor.”

Several #BIWisdom folks pointed out that each department head in an
organization might have different success criteria —ease of use,
governance, integration, for example. And several opined that revenue
and growth are the most important success criteria.

Another tweeted opinion is that success with BI analytics tools requires corresponding transformation of business processes.

And there was this bit of tweeted wisdom: “Failure is any BI
deliverable that doesn’t result in a changed process or decisions.
Otherwise, what was the point of the initiative?”

So the discussion shifted to context and actionability as well as measurement of success.
“But how can you measure ‘understanding?’” asked one of the group.
“And what if you can’t prove you improved?” Another participant added
that some business processes don’t lend themselves to measurement. So
it’s “a bit like a scientist’s problem of mere observation impacting
results of an experiment,” he added.
I think this tweet sums up the final opinions of the group: “It’s
fair to say that evaluation of success or failure is a measurement of
whether the BI initiative enabled change. After all, if it just proves
your organization is perfect, the expense of evaluating the outcome
isn’t justified.”

Bottom line: Of course failures also are learning experiences. But my
experience and observation is that in successful organizations business
intelligence is how people stay aligned with the mission and strategy.
Therefore, if BI is that crucial to an organization’s success, it
begs the question: Does the BI industry do enough to ensure initial
customer success with BI tools and solutions?

>> Click here to view our full catalog of Business Intelligence research products <<Howard Dresner is president, founder and chief research officer at Dresner Advisory Services, LLC,
an independent advisory firm. He is one of the foremost thought leaders
in Business Intelligence and Performance Management, having coined the
term “Business Intelligence” in 1989. He has published two books on the
subject, The Performance Management Revolution — Business Results
through Insight and Action, and Profiles in Performance — Business
Intelligence Journeys and the Roadmap for Change. He hosts a weekly
tweet chat (#BIWisdom) on Twitter each Friday. Prior to Dresner Advisory
Services, Howard served as chief strategy officer at Hyperion Solutions
and was a research fellow at Gartner, where he led its Business
Intelligence research practice for 13 years.